Meeting with some of your favorite Disney characters in a Disney theme park can be one of the most magical experiences you’ll ever have as a Disney fan. When my kids were little, one of the things we’d always work on first as we began our planning was our list of characters they hoped to meet and take photos with during our family vacations.
Arriving at the parks with our mapped-out plans of where to meet our favorites was our idea of being well-prepared. But then, there was that first trip where a random character would appear, seemingly out of nowhere, just walking around the park. What a surprise! Here we thought we’d only see the characters who were listed on the schedule, but seeing unexpected characters brought that extra dose of magic we had no idea was coming.
An important thing to keep in mind with these roaming characters is that you really only have half of a split second from the moment you spot them to snap a photo, so you get what you get. I happen to be a gigantic fan of Gepetto (and all of the Pinocchio characters), and I couldn’t help but catch this adorable moment where he knelt down to chat with a little girl in Fantasyland. It was the most precious interaction; even if she doesn’t remember it when she grows up, her parents most certainly will.
The surprise was great as we always had a character autograph book ready to go on our first day in the parks. We also brought the big Sharpie markers so the characters could easily sign our books, and these were at the top of our bag so we could easily access them in a quick hurry if we needed to.
When I was at Disneyland last week, I wasn’t looking to get character autographs, but I did see quite a few characters wandering around. Mary Poppins and Bert were doing a little performance back by “it’s a small world” and I caught them just as they finished up and headed out.
The sun was SO bright behind the Genie from Aladdin in this photo above, but as I mentioned before, you only have a second to catch the picture, and it was one that I really wanted, especially because he was being silly and kept turning around for one last wave at his fans!
After spotting Genie, I headed into Mickey’s Toon Town where Pete was hanging out in front of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I could spend hours in Toon Town soaking in all the whimsy, and seeing a big cartoon character walking around out there was just the best!
I thought that I might run into a few wandering characters over in Disney California Adventure Park, but the only ones I was able to catch that were unexpected were Ant-Man and Black Widow in Avengers Campus. I also happened to be at the right place at the right time to spot Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from Zootopia, and Baymax with Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6!
I love spotting spontaneous characters throughout the parks, and I wish there were more of them in the Walt Disney World theme parks!
